As the Senate Agriculture Committee begins consideration of its 2018 Farm Bill, we the undersigned 118 organizations support your efforts to write a full, fair Farm Bill that protects and grows support for the conservation, rural development and nutrition programs that are essential to our communities, including full funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

We also urge you to write a bill that supports and expands farm livelihoods as an economic base of communities, advances intergenerational land tenure continuity, and promotes familial and community wealth for our nation’s new entry, historically underserved, and veteran producers. We further urge you to protect and expand that critical subset of programs that effectively include and support the most chronically under-served segments of agriculture as well as our urban and rural communities and cooperatives. We specifically endorse and urge you to include the following legislative packages:

1) The Assist Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Act of 2018 (S.2839 — by Sen. Chris Van Hollen-Sen. Tina Smith and H.R.5824 by Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham), which extends and strengthens the historic Outreach to Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program. It would provide authority for multi-year grants in order to increase efficiency for both USDA and the end users, improve the grant review process through a new peer review requirement, and require annual public reports. The bill strengthens systems to track progress in serving these constituencies by making publicly available reports on changes in program participation to the county level.

2) The Assist Farmers and Ranchers Operating on Heirs’ Property to Participate in USDA Programs Act of 2018 (by Sen. Doug Jones and Rep. Marcia Fudge), which provides statutory authority to allow producers farming on land that is held by undivided interests without administrative authority (heirs’ property, or property where owners passed away without leaving a will or assigning an executor) to secure access to USDA programs. This bill authorizes acceptance of alternate forms of documentation defining who controls the land, which would allow many more farm operators to qualify to participate in farm and conservation programs. FSA would also be authorized to loan funds to qualified intermediaries to relend to families to resolve heirs’ property issues and clear title to farm land. Finally, the bill authorizes data collection and comprehensive analysis on trends in farmland ownership and operation, and transitions of farms and ranches to a new generation of owners and operators. The studies authorized would improve our understanding of the impact of unresolved land tenure issues on the ability of producers to operate farms and pass them on to new generations.

3) The Next Generation in Agriculture Act (S. 2762 by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and Sen. Susan Collins), which breaks down additional barriers faced by new entry operators and strengthens real support for the next generation of producers. The bill permanently reauthorizes and strengthens the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, including by eliminating the matching requirement; and adds new authority for coordinators at USDA to improve delivery and outreach to young and beginning farmers.

4) Farm Credit Access – We urge the committee to assure that USDA farm loan programs continue to serve diverse small and mid-scale farms and provide a safety net for all farmers. The Committee should resist calls for significant increases in guaranteed loan limits. Instead, the Committee should enhance protections for guaranteed borrowers, and provide moderate increases in limits for direct farm ownership loans. The current USDA loan portfolio demonstrates the need for additional appropriations for guaranteed loans, not increased loan size. Only in direct farm ownership loans does current utilization demonstrate need for increased loan limits and funding.

We understand the challenge the Committee faces in investing the limited funds available to support the full range of agriculture, conservation, and rural programs, while protecting nutrition programs to assist those who need it most. However, any additional support that could be directed to the programs detailed in this letter would represent an important investment in the future of our agriculture and food system.